Double-grooved girder-rail



(NoModel.)

Patented May l5, 1888.

lllllll A. J. MOXHAM.

HUN

NiTED STATES PATENT @trienio ARTHUR J. MOXHAM, OF JOHNSTVN, PENNSYLVANIA.

DOUBLE-GROOVE!) GlRDER-RAlL.

EPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 383,002l dated May 15, 1988- Serial No. 183,405, (No model.)

To @ZZ whom it may conce/m Be it known that I, ARTHUR J. MOXHAM, of Johnstown, in the county of Cambria and State of Pennsylvania, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Double-Grooved Girder Rails for Street-Car Tracks, which improvement or invention is fully set forth and illustrated in the followingspeciication and accompanying drawings.

The object of this invention is to make a street-car rail which, while inviting street-vehicle traffic upon the track in which it is laid, shall at the same time exclude the tires of the vehicles engaged in such traftic from entering the grooves in such rails,and also maintain the grooves wherein the lianges of the car-wheels run less encumbered or illed with the dirt and refuse material of the street than is the case with the single groove, and shall also admit of a close fitting of the paving thereto.

The invention will first be described in connection with the accompanying drawings,and then be specifically set forth in the claim.

In said drawings, Figure 1 is a transverse section of a double-grooved girder-rail, showing ordinary splice-bars, also in similar section and bolted thereto for uniting such rails at theirjoints in track. Fig. 2 is a similar section showing such doublegrooved railsecured in track by a spcciallyformed chair, also in crosssection.

In said gures the several parts of the rail are indicated by letters as follows:

A indicates the head of the rail. a a indicate grooves on each side of the same, and a a parts of the head exterior to said grooves.

The web E of the rail terminates below in a stub, F, said web in Fig. 2 being bolted to the chair J J through its portion H H, as shown in the drawings, the two sides JJ being bolted together below the stub F.

In Fig. 1 splice-bars H H are shown bolted to the web E, no kind of'a chair being shown.

The grooves a a on each side of the head AV the tires of streetvehicles to drop or run therein-say seven-eighths of an inch wide at top, one-halfinch wide at bottoni,and seven-eighths of an inch deep.

The advantage oflhis double-grooved girderrail, additional to those ofthe single-groove rail for which I haveherewithled an application for Letters Patent, will now be set forth.

Vith all street-rails, where laid with their heads in immediate contact with the street surface or paving, it has been found by experience that such Contact induces the accumulation of dirt upon the heads, and thus causes or necessitates heavy pulling. By the use of these double grooves a a, however, a portion of the head is provided on each side in immediate contac-t with the streetsurface, leaving a cen' tral portion-the portion utilized by the tread ofthe car-wheels-away from or out ofsuch contact, thus to such extent preventing the accumulation of dirt upon the head proper of the rail. It will also be observed that the exterior portions, a d', of the head of the rail are formed with straight vertical sides,as between the points x x. This is of importance in mak ing a neat and close fit between the head of the rail and the paving-blocks of the street, pre venting wear of the street-surface into ruts or grooves at such joints by the wheels of the streetvehicles, and conducing to smoothness of travel over said rails. Vhere the single groove is used the accumulations of dirt on the head of the rail are worked into such groove and render frequent cleaning or clearing of the same necessary; but with the use of the double groove, the anges ofthe carwheels being on but one side and filling the groove on such side, rotation of the wheels tends to throw the dirt into the other groove. Vhen the accumuA lations are from the street-surface in ordinary weather,this action decreases such evil of filled up grooves by one-half; but in cold freezing weather, when accumulations of ice and snow are found a more serious evil, the advantages are even still greater and more apparent,for the double groove will then afford such temporary relief as to frequently bridge over the time until a thaw sets in, when the work of any necessary clearing ofthe grooves will of course be rendered much less difficult and costly and more speedy.

rIhis type of double-groove rail will be most favorably suited to large cities with crowded thoroughfaresfwhere the street-paving is generally kept. in good repair. Practical experience, supported by statistics, proves that the Wear occasioned by streetvehicles is much greater than that occasioned by the street-car- Wheel travel, the traffic of the loaded streetvehicles being much heavier than that of the passenger-cars. By providing, therefore, the double grooves in the head of the rail, the eX- terior parts, a a, ot' the head are caused to equally or equitably distribute over both sides ot' the head the Whole of the street-vehicle traffic, andthus render the wear upon the head as uniform as possible.

The stub F at the lower end of the web, inclining rapidlyaway at the points ff, permits of the use of a chair which, While embracing said stub over its top edges, is of such forni as to secure ample strength for all purposes of a chair.

The chair shown in the drawings forms' no part of this invention.

Having thus fully described my said inlprovennent in double-grooved girder-rails, as 25 of my invention I claim- A street-ear girder-rail of the form substantially as illustrated in the accompanying drawings, consisting of a vertical central web terminating at bottoni in a double-shouldered 3o stub or bead, as F, and at top in-a fiat head having a center bearing portion for the tread ofthe car-wheels, grooves on each side thereof for the flanges of said wheels,and exterior portions, as a a,on the outer sides ofsaid grooves, 35 provided with straight sides between points @substantially as and for the purposes set forth.

ARTHUR J. MOXHAM.

Witnesses:

W. P11-looms, A. MONTGOMERY. 

